" BeIng popular is essential for one to develop self confidence." Do you agree?

To be confident is to have a great deal of trust and belief in yourself. Whereas, being popular is to be liked by most people and to be accepted by others. This could boost one’s self esteem. But, I agree to a small extend that being popular for one to develop self confidence is essential.

Self confidence can be built up through various ways. For example, having a good personal appearance. Appearance greatly affects the way we feel about ourselves and also it affects how others may think of us. When we look good, we feel good about ourselves and it in turns build up our self confidence and allows us to be able to keep our attention off from ourselves. Self consciousness such as not being able to achieve what others view of us often affects our self confidence. Instead, we should not be too concern over the goals that others set for us and to be optimistic in whatever we do and also be able to take in critisms to improve in ourselves. Also, we should set goals for ourselves and not goals to gain other’s approval.

Having a supportive family is also essential in building up a child’s self confidence especially. As if a parent were to be extremely critical and over demanding of their child, the child would come to think that they are of lower caliber and incompetent. This would greatly affect the child’s confidence in being able to excel since young. Instead if the parent were to be understanding and accept and love their child even as they are, this would greatly help in building up the child’s love for oneself and their self confidence.

To be able to take risks and not to be afraid of failure is also an important element in building self confidence. In the process of failure, we learn to accept ourselves and learn to be more positive in life. Life is never smooth sailing thus I feel that every failure in life is a stepping stone to a better life. Every mistake learnt enables us to know more about ourselves. After all it’s the effort and life – enriching process that counts and not the end product. For example, I never knew that I was able to speak in front of others. Although I was forced to do so, I gained a new experience and it help to build my self confidence in being able to speak up.

The lack of self confidence often affects us to turn to being accepted by others to feel good about ourselves- popularity. Indeed, for some, being popular helps in allowing them to build their confidence as they feel that they have got friends who care about them and everyone around them are looking at them in a different light which makes them feel good and special. However, it makes me wonder if they ever feel a sense of security with their friends. As popularity does not last forever and when it wears out, others would no longer consider them as someone special and this would in turn make them feel even more inferior than before.

Therefore, it is my stand that being popular is not essential for one to develop self confidence. As self confidence is to trust our own abilities and to accept ourselves for what we are and not to depend on the approval of others to feel good.

issabella tan